Cuomo threatens EPA with legal action over offshore dumping

A fresh battle has emerged between Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, this time over dumping in the Long Island Sound.

In a letter sent Thursday and in public remarks, Cuomo vowed a full-scale legal battle with the EPA if it finalizes a rule that would allow another permanent dumping site for dredged materials in the sound. Many elected officials from both parties are behind the governor, and they signed the letter as well.

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The EPA said Thursday that while no plans have been completed, the dumping site was established after extensive outreach with local officials and is the best location to dump the materials.

"We say to the federal government, 'It would be nice if you were helpful, by the way. It would be nice if you helped us with funds, if you helped us with resources,'" Cuomo said in remarks at Sunken Meadow State Park on Long Island. "But I will be darned if you are going to be counterproductive to us and we are going to be spending money to clean it up. You’re spending money to dump more dredged material. It’s not going to happen."

Officials at EPA Region I, which covers New England, said the dredging is a necessity for safe navigation of commercial and military vessels and that any dumping would be done in an environmentally sound manner.

"The EPA worked with federal, state, and local agencies, and conducted extensive public participation in developing its proposal," EPA spokesman David Deegan said in a statement. "The EPA has not made a final decision, but we believe the proposal strikes an appropriate balance between the need for dredging to maintain safe and efficient navigation, and our desired outcome to restore and protect Long Island Sound."

The federal agency said it was looking to establish a new site for dredge dumping before two other sites are set to expire in December. EPA also said it requires stringent sediment analyses to make sure no contaminated material is dumped at the offshore sites.

The agency conducted six public meetings while developing the draft environmental impact statement for the site and four public hearings when the draft was completed. The final rule has not been finalized.

"EPA is carefully reviewing all the comments it received during the public comment period which closed on July 18th after an 81-day comment period," Deegan said. "We will evaluate all input — including recommendations for and against the proposal — before taking action to either finalize the site designation or to modify the proposal."

In the letter to President Obama and EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, Cuomo, along with 32 other state, local and federal elected officials, vowed to take legal action if the site is finalized.

"If EPA ignores New York's objections and finalizes its rule to permanently designate an open water disposal site in eastern Long Island, I will take all necessary steps to challenge the rule and stop it from being implemented," Cuomo wrote.

The letter, which can be read here, was signed by Reps. Peter King and Sean Patrick Maloney as well as state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, among others.

It is not Cuomo's first tussle with the EPA. In 2015 the federal agency blocked the governor's plans to use $511 million from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund to fund construction of the new Tappan Zee bridge.